The server is started by simply invoking the "eclipse" executable (eclipse.exe on Windows, "eclipse" on Unix platforms). Starting the OSGI console by passing the "-console" argument is also recommended:

+

The server is started by simply invoking the "orion" executable (orion.exe on Windows, "orion" on Unix platforms). Starting the OSGI console by passing the "-console" argument is also recommended:

−

eclipse -console

+

orion -console

== Stopping the server ==

== Stopping the server ==

Line 17:

Line 17:

== Server configuration file ==

== Server configuration file ==

−

Many Orion server settings are found in the Orion server configuration file. By default this file is located in the current working directory of the Orion server process in a file called <tt>orion.conf</tt>. For example you can place this file in the root of your Orion install, then launch Orion from there. Alternatively, the location of the configuration file can be specified via the system property <tt>orion.core.configFile</tt>. For example add this line to eclipse.ini:

+

Many Orion server settings are found in the Orion server configuration file. By default Orion looks for this file in the current working directory of the Orion server process in a file called <tt>orion.conf</tt>. For example you can place this file in the root of your Orion install, then launch Orion from there.

+

+

'''Note:''' On Mac OS X, if you're launching Orion by double-clicking Orion.app, the working directory is <tt>orion.app/Contents/MacOS</tt>, so you must put the orion.conf file in that directory. (To drill into orion.app, Ctrl+click it and choose "Show Package Contents".)

+

+

If the configuration file is not in the working directory, Orion will check the platform instance location - the location specified by the -data command line argument. By default this is a directory called "serverworkspace". Alternatively, the location of the configuration file can be specified via the system property <tt>orion.core.configFile</tt>. For example add this line to orion.ini:

-Dorion.core.configFile=/home/fran/orion.conf

-Dorion.core.configFile=/home/fran/orion.conf

Line 27:

Line 31:

== Changing the port ==

== Changing the port ==

−

By default Orion will run on port 8080. To change the port, edit the file eclipse/eclipse.ini, and change the value of the "org.eclipse.equinox.http.jetty.http.port" system property.

+

By default Orion will run on port 8080. To change the port, edit the file <tt>orion.ini</tt>, and change the value of the "org.eclipse.equinox.http.jetty.http.port" system property.

== Safely running on port 80 ==

== Safely running on port 80 ==

Line 41:

Line 45:

ServerName orion.eclipse.org

ServerName orion.eclipse.org

ServerAlias *.orion.eclipse.org

ServerAlias *.orion.eclipse.org

+

+

== Configuring to run over SSL ==

+

+

The Orion server can be configured to run over the secure https protocol. In order to do it you need to generate or obtain a public/private key pair and x509 certificate and set the Orion configuration as described below..

+

+

=== Creating a private/public key pair and a certificate ===

+

+

Use the keytool from Java SDK:

+

+

keytool -keystore keystore -alias jetty -genkey -keyalg RSA

+

+

You will be prompted for information about the certificate and passwords for protecting the keystore and keys in it. Once it is done a file named <code>keystore</code> is created in the current working directory and you may proceed to [[#Setting the Orion configuration|Setting the Orion configuration]]

+

+

=== Getting the certificate from a known authority ===

+

+

The keys and certificate generated in the previous step are sufficient to run Orion over https however will not be trusted by the browser what will end up with a prompt on accessing Orion pages. You may request a well known certificate authority like Thawte, VISA, ValiCert, Verisign etc. to sign your key and certificate.

+

+

=== Setting the Orion configuration ===

+

+

Now set the following properties in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]:

+

+

jetty.https.enabled = true

+

jetty.https.port = 8443

+

jetty.ssl.keystore = [the keystore location]

+

jetty.ssl.password = [password]

+

jetty.ssl.keypassword = [password]

+

jetty.ssl.protocol = SSLv3

== Configuring paths where users can store files ==

== Configuring paths where users can store files ==

−

By default all files created by users are stored in the Orion "server workspace". This is the location specified by the "-data" argument when launching the server. By default this workspace is stored at eclipse/serverworkspace/. To allow users to link files in other locations to their workspace, the ''org.eclipse.orion.server.core.allowedPathPrefixes'' system property needs to be edited. The property value is a comma-separated list of absolute file system paths. Users will be allowed to link to and edit files in any of those locations. This property can be set in the eclipse.ini file:

+

By default all files created by users are stored in the Orion "server workspace". This is the location specified by the "-data" argument when launching the server. By default this workspace is stored at eclipse/serverworkspace/. To allow users to link files in other locations to their workspace, the <tt>orion.file.allowedPaths</tt> property can be set in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]. The property value is a comma-separated list of absolute file system paths. Users will be allowed to link to and edit files in any of those locations. This line in the server configuration file will enable storing of files in <tt>/home/orion</tt> on the server, or in any sub-directory thereof.

By default, projects are stored in the server workspace in a flat layout at the root of the workspace directory. This layout works well for single-user or small team installs. However in a large installation with hundreds or thousands of users, you may hit limits on the number of entries that can be stored in a directory. The layout can be changed to a hierarchy tree of projects organized by user id with the following property in the [[Orion/Server_admin_guide#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]:

+

By default, projects are stored in the server workspace in a flat layout at the root of the workspace directory. This layout works well for single-user or small team installs. However in a large installation with hundreds or thousands of users, you may hit limits on the number of entries that can be stored in a directory. The layout can be changed to a hierarchy tree of projects organized by user id with the following property in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]:

orion.file.layout=userTree

orion.file.layout=userTree

Line 72:

Line 95:

== Authentication type ==

== Authentication type ==

−

To configure the kind of authentication used by the server, set the <tt>orion.auth.name</tt> property in the [[Orion/Server_admin_guide#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]. For example, the following line will configure the server to use simple form-based authentication:

+

To configure the kind of authentication used by the server, set the <tt>orion.auth.name</tt> property in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]. For example, the following line will configure the server to use simple form-based authentication:

Orion supports login using [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Persona Mozilla Persona]. To log in with Persona, a user must sign in with Persona using the same email address that is associated to their Orion account.

−

By default, any user is allowed to create an account. To disallow anonymous account creation, you can specify what user ids are allowed to create accounts via the <tt>orion.auth.user.creation</tt> property in the [[Orion/Server_admin_guide#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]].

+

=== Setting the authentication host ===

+

Mozilla Persona credentials supplied by a user are verified against an "audience" parameter, which identifies the server (scheme + domain + port) they're trying to log in to. The following property sets the audience parameter that your server expects. The value of this property should exactly match the client-facing URL of your website. For example, here is what an entry for [http://orionhub.org orionhub.org] would look like:

+

orion.auth.host=http://orionhub.org:80

−

orion.auth.user.creation=admin

+

If this property is not set, Orion will only allow Persona logins from a local loopback device (localhost, 127.0.0.1, etc.). All other attempts attempts to log in with Persona will fail with a message like this:

When this property is specified, account creation can only be performed on the user management page. This page is currently only accessible for the [[#Creating_an_admin_user|admin user]].

+

=== Setting the verifier ===

+

When logging in with Mozilla Persona credentials, the user's information is verified using a third-party web service. The following property specifies the URL of the service to be used:

+

orion.auth.persona.verifier=https://verifier.login.persona.org/verify

+

If this property is not set, <code>https://verifier.login.persona.org/verify</code> is used by default.

−

== Creating an admin user ==

+

== Password storage ==

−

No accounts are built into the Orion server by default. This avoids a vulnerability caused by well-known users and passwords that administrators neglect to change. While a small-scale server might not require an admin user at all, it is useful to create an admin account for larger-scale user management (seeing list of all users, adding/deleting users, etc). To create an admin account, add following line to the [[Orion/Server_admin_guide#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]] (but please use a more creative password):

+

The Orion server stores passwords on disk using the Equinox secure storage mechanism. This storage facility is locked by a master password. You can set a master password by setting the following system property in the server's orion.ini file (please use a more creative password):

−

orion.auth.admin.default.password=abracadabra

+

-Dorion.storage.password=abracadabra

−

This will cause an administrator account to be created as the server starts up. The admin user name is "admin" and the password will be the value specified by the configuration property. Once the admin account has been created, the configuration property is no longer required on startup (the admin password can be changed later by logging in as the administrator and going to the profile management page).

+

== Enabling anonymous read access ==

−

== Creating and deleting users ==

+

By default, each user can only read and write projects they created. When self-hosting or in small team installations, it may be useful to enable users to access each other's projects in a read-only fashion. This can be done by setting the following property in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]:

−

Users can be created and deleted by logging in as admin, and visiting the user management page at "/manage-users.html". For example a server on your own machine can be managed from http://localhost:8080/manage-users.html. Click the button [[Image:Orion-new-user.gif]] to create a new user. To delete a user, click the [[Image:Orion-delete-png.png]] button in the "Action" column next to the user to be deleted.

+

orion.file.anonymous.read=true

−

You can also create a user via the Orion server API. Use curl or another utility to send a POST request to "/users". The form requires the following parameters: "login" (user login id), "password" (initial password) and "passwordConf" (confirm password).

+

== Email configuration ==

−

== Changing passwords ==

+

Orion allows to users to add their email account in profile, that will be later used to send email notifications, for instance resetting the password. This option is however only available if email and SMTP server configuration is present in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]:

−

To change a user's password, go to manage-users.html. From there, click on a user to view that user's profile page. On the user profile page you can change the password, change the user's display name, etc. Each user can also change their password by selecting "Profile" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Orion UI.

+

SMTP host that will send email:

+

mail.smtp.host=[smtp_host]

−

== Enabling anonymous read access ==

+

port if different than 25 (default):

+

mail.smtp.port=25

+

+

information if authentication to SMTP server is needed

+

mail.smtp.auth=true

+

+

SMTP server user name if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

+

mail.smtp.user=[smtp_user]

−

By default, each user can only read and write projects they created. When self-hosting or in small team installations, it may be useful to enable users to access each other's projects in a read-only fashion. This can be done by setting the following system property in eclipse.ini:

+

SMTP server password if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

+

mail.smtp.password=[password]

−

-Dorg.eclipse.orion.server.core.projectsWorldReadable=true

+

email that messages will come from (for instance webmaster@orion.eclipse.org):

+

mail.from=[sender_of_mails]

== Automatic git projects ==

== Automatic git projects ==

Line 125:

Line 163:

Installations of Orion can use a hook for providing a custom footer at the bottom of every page. This area is useful for adding copyright notices, legal disclaimers, etc.

Installations of Orion can use a hook for providing a custom footer at the bottom of every page. This area is useful for adding copyright notices, legal disclaimers, etc.

−

The HTML fragment is defined as bottomHTMLFragment in org.eclipse.orion.client.core/static/js/globalCommands.js. The div containing this fragment is assigned a class "footer" and this class is

+

The HTML fragment is defined as bottomHTMLFragment in <tt>org.eclipse.orion.client.core/static/js/globalCommands.js</tt>. The div containing this fragment is assigned a class "footer" and this class is defined in ide.css

−

defined in ide.css

+

== Configuring virtual host names for launching sites ==

== Configuring virtual host names for launching sites ==

−

In Orion M6, users can select files and folders from their workspace and launch them as a stand-alone website. For this to work, you should tell the Orion server what virtual host names will be used to host sites. This is done by setting the '''org.eclipse.orion.server.hosting.virtualHosts''' system property. In the --vmargs section of your eclipse\eclipse.ini file, add a line like this:

+

In Orion, users can select files and folders from their workspace and launch them as a stand-alone website. For this to work, you should tell the Orion server what virtual host names will be used to host sites. This is done by setting the <tt>orion.site.virtualHosts</tt> property in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]]:

The value after the ''='' sign is a list of domains (wildcards are allowed) and IP addresses, separated by commas. Each entry in the list must resolve to the Orion server, and will be used to assign unique host names to sites launched by users. Orion will listen to incoming requests for these hosts (based on the HTTP "Host" header), and serve up the user's files as necessary.

+

The value after the ''='' sign is a comma-separated list of domains, such as:

−

+

−

In a multi-user environment, you'll most likely want to supply a domain wildcard (or some externally-reachable IP address) that resolves to your server. By contrast, if you're running the Orion server for yourself on your local machine, you can simply pass a list of aliases for localhost (see [[#Hosting locally | Hosting locally]] below).

+

−

<!--

+

−

The value is a comma-separated list, where each item in the list is either:

+

* A valid domain name (eg. <code>foo.myhost.net</code>), or

* A valid domain name (eg. <code>foo.myhost.net</code>), or

* A domain including wildcards (eg. <code>*.myhost.net</code>), or

* A domain including wildcards (eg. <code>*.myhost.net</code>), or

* A valid IP address.

* A valid IP address.

−

The values from the list will be allocated to hosted sites as virtual host names, so they '''must''' be aliases for the Orion server.

+

The values from the list will be allocated to hosted sites as virtual host names, so they '''must''' be aliases for the Orion server. Orion will listen to incoming requests for these hosts (based on the HTTP "Host" header), and serve up the user's files as necessary.

−

-->

+

+

In a multi-user environment, you'll most likely want to supply a domain wildcard (or some externally-reachable IP address) that resolves to your server. By contrast, if you're running the Orion server for yourself on your local machine, you can simply pass a list of aliases for localhost (see [[#Hosting locally | Hosting locally]] below).

==== Defaults ====

==== Defaults ====

−

If you don't supply the '''org.eclipse.orion.server.hosting.virtualHosts''' argument, Orion will use a default setting. On Windows and Linux, the default assigns up to 16 addresses in the range 127.0.0.2 to 127.0.0.254. On Mac OS X, there are no default addresses, so you will receive an error when you attempt to start a site.

+

If you don't supply the <tt>orion.site.virtualHosts</tt> property, Orion will use a default setting. On Windows and Linux, the default assigns up to 16 addresses in the range 127.0.0.2 to 127.0.0.254. On Mac OS X, there are no default addresses, so you will receive an error ("No more hosts available") when you attempt to start a site.

:Makes the 2 IP addresses available as virtual host names. Since they happen to be loopback addresses, any hosted site assigned to them will only be reachable from the local machine. (See the [[#Note_about_hosting locally|Note about hosting locally]]).<p></p>

+

:Makes the 2 IP addresses available as virtual host names. Since they happen to be loopback addresses, any hosted site assigned to them will only be reachable from the local machine. (See [[#Hosting_locally|Hosting locally]]).<p></p>

:Makes 1 domain and 1 wildcard domain available. They will be allocated in the order provided. That is, <code>foo.myhost.net</code> will be assigned to the first hosted site that is launched, and subsequent launches will be assigned subdomains of <code>myhost.net</code>.

:Makes 1 domain and 1 wildcard domain available. They will be allocated in the order provided. That is, <code>foo.myhost.net</code> will be assigned to the first hosted site that is launched, and subsequent launches will be assigned subdomains of <code>myhost.net</code>.

−

-->

−

==== Hosting locally ====

+

=== Hosting locally ===

When you are the only user of your Orion server, you can just use some aliases for localhost to host on. On most platforms, any 127.x.x.x address will work, so you can do this:

When you are the only user of your Orion server, you can just use some aliases for localhost to host on. On most platforms, any 127.x.x.x address will work, so you can do this:

The above example would give you 2 IP addresses available for virtual hosts: 127.0.0.2 and 127.0.0.3.

The above example would give you 2 IP addresses available for virtual hosts: 127.0.0.2 and 127.0.0.3.

Line 171:

Line 204:

$ sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.3 up

$ sudo ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.3 up

−

Then try the example. Note that if you restart your machine, you'll have to do this again.

+

Also ensure that your orion.conf file is located properly inside the orion.app. You will want to "Show Package Contents" in the Finder and then place the file in Contents/MacOS. Then try the example. Note that if you restart your machine, you'll have to execute the sudo commands again.

}}

}}

−

To use a more readable hostname instead of an IP address, you can edit the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file hosts file] on your local machine and create an entry that maps <code>friendlyHostname</code> to <code>127.0.0.1</code>. Then include the same hostname in the launch argument, and Orion will use it:

+

To use a more readable hostname instead of an IP address, you can edit the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file hosts file] on your local machine and create an entry that maps <code>friendlyHostname</code> to <code>127.0.0.1</code>. Then include the same hostname in the server configuration property, and Orion will use it:

Users can be created and deleted by logging in as admin, and visiting the user management page at "/profile/user-list.html". For example a server on your own machine can be managed from http://localhost:8080/profile/user-list.html. Click the button [[Image:Orion-new-user.gif]] to create a new user. To delete a user, click the [[Image:Orion-delete-png.png]] button in the "Action" column next to the user to be deleted.

+

+

You can also create a user via the Orion server API. Use curl or another utility to send a POST request to "/users". The form requires the following parameters: "login" (user login id), "password" (initial password) and "passwordConf" (confirm password).

+

+

== Changing passwords ==

+

+

To change a user's password, go to user-list.html. From there, click on a user to view that user's profile page. On the user profile page you can change the password, change the user's display name, etc. Each user can also change their password by selecting "Profile" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Orion UI.

+

+

== Allowing users to create accounts ==

+

+

By default, any user is allowed to create an account. To disallow anonymous account creation, you can specify what user ids are allowed to create accounts via the <tt>orion.auth.user.creation</tt> property in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]].

+

+

orion.auth.user.creation=admin

+

+

When this property is specified, account creation can only be performed on the user management page. This page is currently only accessible for the [[#Creating_an_admin_user|admin user]].

+

+

== Requiring users to add email while creating account ==

+

+

By default, user email is optional, however this may be changed via the <tt>orion.auth.user.creation.force.email</tt> property in the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]].

+

+

orion.auth.user.creation.force.email=true

+

+

When this property is specified as '''true''', users are required to provide an email address while creating the Orion account. Immediately after creating the user account an email will be sent to the provided address requesting confirmation. The account is confirmed by clicking on the generated link provided in the email. The user will be able to log in only after the given email address is confirmed. This option will only work correctly when email configuration is correctly set. See [[#Email configuration|email configuration]] section for directions.

+

+

== Creating an admin user ==

+

+

No accounts are built into the Orion server by default. This avoids a vulnerability caused by well-known users and passwords that administrators neglect to change. While a small-scale server might not require an admin user at all, it is useful to create an admin account for larger-scale user management (seeing list of all users, adding/deleting users, etc). To create an admin account, add following line to the [[#Server_configuration_file|server configuration file]] (but please use a more creative password):

+

+

orion.auth.admin.default.password=abracadabra

+

+

This will cause an administrator account to be created as the server starts up. The admin user name is "admin" and the password will be the value specified by the configuration property. Once the admin account has been created, the configuration property is no longer required on startup (the admin password can be changed later by logging in as the administrator and going to the profile management page).

= Ongoing server management =

= Ongoing server management =

+

+

== Server Messages on Login Page ==

+

+

If you wish to display a message linked to a more detailed description of some server or service information you must modify the ''server-status.json'' file located in the web directory. By default this file contains an example which is not displayed. The example shows that a message must contain a ''title'' (not too long), a ''startdate'' (in YYYY/MM/DD format), an ''enddate'' and a longer textual ''description'' of the message. If the date the user connects to the server and is presented with the login page is between the startdate and enddate then the login page will show the title along with a link to a page with all the recent server messages.

+

+

Example contents of the ''server-status.json'' file:

+

+

<source lang="javascript">

+

{

+

"README.TXT" : "Each message needs to have a title, startdate, enddate and description field. Only the first message can be displayed on the login screen.",

+

"messages" : [

+

{

+

"title" : "Provide a short description of the message here",

+

"startdate" : "2012/10/22",

+

"enddate" : "2012/10/23",

+

"description" : "This is the longer description of the message. You can see that this message will be displayed from October 22nd until the end of October 23rd."

+

},

+

{

+

"title" : "This is an older message",

+

"startdate" : "2012/10/10",

+

"enddate" : "2012/10/12",

+

"description" : "This message will be display on the server messages page but not in the login page."

+

}

+

],

+

"example-messages" : [

+

{

+

"title" : "This is an older message never to be displayed",

+

"startdate" : "2012/10/22",

+

"enddate" : "2012/10/23",

+

"description" : "This is the longer description of the message. You can see that this message will be displayed from October 22nd until the end of October 23rd."

Operating the server

Starting the server

The server is started by simply invoking the "orion" executable (orion.exe on Windows, "orion" on Unix platforms). Starting the OSGI console by passing the "-console" argument is also recommended:

orion -console

Stopping the server

To stop the server, go to the OSGi console and type "close". You can also simply kill the server process, but an orderly shutdown is always recommended to ensure all data is correctly persisted.

Configuring the server

Server configuration file

Many Orion server settings are found in the Orion server configuration file. By default Orion looks for this file in the current working directory of the Orion server process in a file called orion.conf. For example you can place this file in the root of your Orion install, then launch Orion from there.

Note: On Mac OS X, if you're launching Orion by double-clicking Orion.app, the working directory is orion.app/Contents/MacOS, so you must put the orion.conf file in that directory. (To drill into orion.app, Ctrl+click it and choose "Show Package Contents".)

If the configuration file is not in the working directory, Orion will check the platform instance location - the location specified by the -data command line argument. By default this is a directory called "serverworkspace". Alternatively, the location of the configuration file can be specified via the system property orion.core.configFile. For example add this line to orion.ini:

-Dorion.core.configFile=/home/fran/orion.conf

The file is a simple text configuration file with key/value pairs delimited by '=' character. Lines starting with '#' are treated as comments and ignored

Note: For those developing Orion, the server configuration file can be specified in your Eclipse launch configuration. The launch configuration file included in the bundle org.eclipse.orion.client.core will automatically use the configuration file web-ide.conf in the same bundle.

Changing the port

By default Orion will run on port 8080. To change the port, edit the file orion.ini, and change the value of the "org.eclipse.equinox.http.jetty.http.port" system property.

Safely running on port 80

Running a server on port 80 usually requires running the application as the root user. For security reasons, running the Orion server as root is not recommended. Instead, you can run a basic Apache server as root, with the following entries in the Apache virtual host configuration file:

Also, for the wildcard hosting, this is used as well (in addition to a wildcard DNS entry):

ServerName orion.eclipse.org
ServerAlias *.orion.eclipse.org

Configuring to run over SSL

The Orion server can be configured to run over the secure https protocol. In order to do it you need to generate or obtain a public/private key pair and x509 certificate and set the Orion configuration as described below..

Creating a private/public key pair and a certificate

Use the keytool from Java SDK:

keytool -keystore keystore -alias jetty -genkey -keyalg RSA

You will be prompted for information about the certificate and passwords for protecting the keystore and keys in it. Once it is done a file named keystore is created in the current working directory and you may proceed to Setting the Orion configuration

Getting the certificate from a known authority

The keys and certificate generated in the previous step are sufficient to run Orion over https however will not be trusted by the browser what will end up with a prompt on accessing Orion pages. You may request a well known certificate authority like Thawte, VISA, ValiCert, Verisign etc. to sign your key and certificate.

Configuring paths where users can store files

By default all files created by users are stored in the Orion "server workspace". This is the location specified by the "-data" argument when launching the server. By default this workspace is stored at eclipse/serverworkspace/. To allow users to link files in other locations to their workspace, the orion.file.allowedPaths property can be set in the server configuration file. The property value is a comma-separated list of absolute file system paths. Users will be allowed to link to and edit files in any of those locations. This line in the server configuration file will enable storing of files in /home/orion on the server, or in any sub-directory thereof.

orion.file.allowedPaths=/home/orion

On Windows two backslashes must be used to separate path entries:

orion.file.allowedPaths=C:\\Users\\orion

Configuring project layout

By default, projects are stored in the server workspace in a flat layout at the root of the workspace directory. This layout works well for single-user or small team installs. However in a large installation with hundreds or thousands of users, you may hit limits on the number of entries that can be stored in a directory. The layout can be changed to a hierarchy tree of projects organized by user id with the following property in the server configuration file:

orion.file.layout=userTree

To use the default flat directory structure, you can either omit the property entirely, or specify:

orion.file.layout=flat

Authentication type

To configure the kind of authentication used by the server, set the orion.auth.name property in the server configuration file. For example, the following line will configure the server to use simple form-based authentication:

Configuring Mozilla Persona authentication

Orion supports login using Mozilla Persona. To log in with Persona, a user must sign in with Persona using the same email address that is associated to their Orion account.

Setting the authentication host

Mozilla Persona credentials supplied by a user are verified against an "audience" parameter, which identifies the server (scheme + domain + port) they're trying to log in to. The following property sets the audience parameter that your server expects. The value of this property should exactly match the client-facing URL of your website. For example, here is what an entry for orionhub.org would look like:

If this property is not set, Orion will only allow Persona logins from a local loopback device (localhost, 127.0.0.1, etc.). All other attempts attempts to log in with Persona will fail with a message like this:

Password storage

The Orion server stores passwords on disk using the Equinox secure storage mechanism. This storage facility is locked by a master password. You can set a master password by setting the following system property in the server's orion.ini file (please use a more creative password):

-Dorion.storage.password=abracadabra

Enabling anonymous read access

By default, each user can only read and write projects they created. When self-hosting or in small team installations, it may be useful to enable users to access each other's projects in a read-only fashion. This can be done by setting the following property in the server configuration file:

orion.file.anonymous.read=true

Email configuration

Orion allows to users to add their email account in profile, that will be later used to send email notifications, for instance resetting the password. This option is however only available if email and SMTP server configuration is present in the server configuration file:

SMTP host that will send email:

mail.smtp.host=[smtp_host]

port if different than 25 (default):

mail.smtp.port=25

information if authentication to SMTP server is needed

mail.smtp.auth=true

SMTP server user name if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

mail.smtp.user=[smtp_user]

SMTP server password if authentication to SMTP server is needed:

mail.smtp.password=[password]

email that messages will come from (for instance webmaster@orion.eclipse.org):

mail.from=[sender_of_mails]

Automatic git projects

There is a server configuration property to automatically create a git repository for each created project. This allows a user to stage/commit changes, compare with committed changes, etc. This repository cannot currently be synchronized with a remote replica. To enable this setting, the following property must be specified in the server configuration file:

orion.file.defaultSCM=git

Custom page footer

Installations of Orion can use a hook for providing a custom footer at the bottom of every page. This area is useful for adding copyright notices, legal disclaimers, etc.

The HTML fragment is defined as bottomHTMLFragment in org.eclipse.orion.client.core/static/js/globalCommands.js. The div containing this fragment is assigned a class "footer" and this class is defined in ide.css

Configuring virtual host names for launching sites

In Orion, users can select files and folders from their workspace and launch them as a stand-alone website. For this to work, you should tell the Orion server what virtual host names will be used to host sites. This is done by setting the orion.site.virtualHosts property in the server configuration file:

orion.site.virtualHosts=*.planetorion.org

The value after the = sign is a comma-separated list of domains, such as:

A valid domain name (eg. foo.myhost.net), or

A domain including wildcards (eg. *.myhost.net), or

A valid IP address.

The values from the list will be allocated to hosted sites as virtual host names, so they must be aliases for the Orion server. Orion will listen to incoming requests for these hosts (based on the HTTP "Host" header), and serve up the user's files as necessary.

In a multi-user environment, you'll most likely want to supply a domain wildcard (or some externally-reachable IP address) that resolves to your server. By contrast, if you're running the Orion server for yourself on your local machine, you can simply pass a list of aliases for localhost (see Hosting locally below).

Defaults

If you don't supply the orion.site.virtualHosts property, Orion will use a default setting. On Windows and Linux, the default assigns up to 16 addresses in the range 127.0.0.2 to 127.0.0.254. On Mac OS X, there are no default addresses, so you will receive an error ("No more hosts available") when you attempt to start a site.

Examples

orion.site.virtualHosts=site.myhost.net

Makes 1 host name, site.myhost.net, available for allocation as a virtual host name.

orion.site.virtualHosts=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3

Makes the 2 IP addresses available as virtual host names. Since they happen to be loopback addresses, any hosted site assigned to them will only be reachable from the local machine. (See Hosting locally).

orion.site.virtualHosts=*.myhost.net

Makes all of *.myhost.net available for allocation. Hosted sites will be assigned to subdomains, for example site1.myhost.net, site2.myhost.net, etc.

orion.site.virtualHosts=foo.myhost.net,*.myhost.net

Makes 1 domain and 1 wildcard domain available. They will be allocated in the order provided. That is, foo.myhost.net will be assigned to the first hosted site that is launched, and subsequent launches will be assigned subdomains of myhost.net.

Hosting locally

When you are the only user of your Orion server, you can just use some aliases for localhost to host on. On most platforms, any 127.x.x.x address will work, so you can do this:

orion.site.virtualHosts=127.0.0.2,127.0.0.3

The above example would give you 2 IP addresses available for virtual hosts: 127.0.0.2 and 127.0.0.3.

Running on Mac OS X:In OS X, the above example will not work out-of-the-box. First you'll have to manually create the aliases by running these commands in Terminal.app:

Also ensure that your orion.conf file is located properly inside the orion.app. You will want to "Show Package Contents" in the Finder and then place the file in Contents/MacOS. Then try the example. Note that if you restart your machine, you'll have to execute the sudo commands again.

To use a more readable hostname instead of an IP address, you can edit the hosts file on your local machine and create an entry that maps friendlyHostname to 127.0.0.1. Then include the same hostname in the server configuration property, and Orion will use it:

orion.site.virtualHosts=friendlyHostname

Administering users

Creating and deleting users

Users can be created and deleted by logging in as admin, and visiting the user management page at "/profile/user-list.html". For example a server on your own machine can be managed from http://localhost:8080/profile/user-list.html. Click the button to create a new user. To delete a user, click the button in the "Action" column next to the user to be deleted.

You can also create a user via the Orion server API. Use curl or another utility to send a POST request to "/users". The form requires the following parameters: "login" (user login id), "password" (initial password) and "passwordConf" (confirm password).

Changing passwords

To change a user's password, go to user-list.html. From there, click on a user to view that user's profile page. On the user profile page you can change the password, change the user's display name, etc. Each user can also change their password by selecting "Profile" from the drop-down menu in the top right corner of the Orion UI.

Allowing users to create accounts

By default, any user is allowed to create an account. To disallow anonymous account creation, you can specify what user ids are allowed to create accounts via the orion.auth.user.creation property in the server configuration file.

orion.auth.user.creation=admin

When this property is specified, account creation can only be performed on the user management page. This page is currently only accessible for the admin user.

Requiring users to add email while creating account

By default, user email is optional, however this may be changed via the orion.auth.user.creation.force.email property in the server configuration file.

orion.auth.user.creation.force.email=true

When this property is specified as true, users are required to provide an email address while creating the Orion account. Immediately after creating the user account an email will be sent to the provided address requesting confirmation. The account is confirmed by clicking on the generated link provided in the email. The user will be able to log in only after the given email address is confirmed. This option will only work correctly when email configuration is correctly set. See email configuration section for directions.

Creating an admin user

No accounts are built into the Orion server by default. This avoids a vulnerability caused by well-known users and passwords that administrators neglect to change. While a small-scale server might not require an admin user at all, it is useful to create an admin account for larger-scale user management (seeing list of all users, adding/deleting users, etc). To create an admin account, add following line to the server configuration file (but please use a more creative password):

orion.auth.admin.default.password=abracadabra

This will cause an administrator account to be created as the server starts up. The admin user name is "admin" and the password will be the value specified by the configuration property. Once the admin account has been created, the configuration property is no longer required on startup (the admin password can be changed later by logging in as the administrator and going to the profile management page).

Ongoing server management

Server Messages on Login Page

If you wish to display a message linked to a more detailed description of some server or service information you must modify the server-status.json file located in the web directory. By default this file contains an example which is not displayed. The example shows that a message must contain a title (not too long), a startdate (in YYYY/MM/DD format), an enddate and a longer textual description of the message. If the date the user connects to the server and is presented with the login page is between the startdate and enddate then the login page will show the title along with a link to a page with all the recent server messages.

Example contents of the server-status.json file:

{"README.TXT":"Each message needs to have a title, startdate, enddate and description field. Only the first message can be displayed on the login screen.","messages":[{"title":"Provide a short description of the message here","startdate":"2012/10/22","enddate":"2012/10/23","description":"This is the longer description of the message. You can see that this message will be displayed from October 22nd until the end of October 23rd."},{"title":"This is an older message","startdate":"2012/10/10","enddate":"2012/10/12","description":"This message will be display on the server messages page but not in the login page."}],"example-messages":[{"title":"This is an older message never to be displayed","startdate":"2012/10/22","enddate":"2012/10/23","description":"This is the longer description of the message. You can see that this message will be displayed from October 22nd until the end of October 23rd."}]}

Wiping server data

If you are deploying a demo server of Orion, you may want to periodically wipe out all user data, but preserve account names and passwords. This is done as follows:

Stop the server

Rename serverworkspace to serverworkspace.old

Reinstall or reimage the server if you want to be paranoid

Create a new clean serverworkspace directory

Copy the following two directories from the old server workspace to the new one:

Automating account creation with curl

To automate account creation with curl, you need to issue one curl command to log into the Orion server and capture the returned cookie. Subsequent curl calls must include the authentication cookie, and a POST payload, to create an account.